Beauty & Elegance

I received this yesterday.... a gift from a beautiful friend and I'm in love with it. It's just so pure and simple yet elegant and luxurious.... can it be those things all at once?

To be honest I have never felt worthy or need for such beauty and luxury...why? I dug down real deep into my heart....and found a few reasons why.

1. I have never known what I like or love when it comes to things, clothes, hairstyles, jewelry etc...so its been easier to just go with whatever and let someone else tell me what I like.... that way I'll be right. Even to write that I see that is warped.

2. I have spent so long feeling like beauty and elegance as wasteful, vain and superficial. This has stemmed from being on such a stringent budget for so long, experiencing lack and going without.

3. More recently seeing, smelling and feeling the poverty, and hearing the stories makes me feel so guilty for having things when others simply do not have even the bare basics.

These past few weeks I have mentally been hibernating. Massive events have happened in my family, and I just needed some mental space to sort through it all, to recover....to nourish and nurture myself and my family. They aren't all bad mind you.... we bought a house! Amazing! But even an emotional high can be exhausting.

I have left my work for @lovingarmsnz for 2 weeks just doing the bare minimum to keep it ticking along because to be fully present and engaged...meeting people where they are at, loving them can be taxing and over time makes me not enjoy it and very tearful. It's not the place I want to be.

But I'm back from my space, my mental vacay.....and learning to appreciate beauty and kindness for myself.

This flower will remind me that rest, beauty and elegance, kindness and love are gifts...gifts that I'm worthy of...gifts from God himself and it's ok to enjoy them, to rest in them, to love them...in fact he loves that I do.

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!" Ps 27:13

Settlement Day

 Today...today could any one word hold so much emotion. Today was settlement day! Settlement day!

Today we bought a house...a home....our home. A place for our family to enjoy and make our own. A place to share with friends and family. A place to breathe.

There are no words of the feeling I feel today. This has most certainly a journey of miracles. God is so good.

He Did It.....SOLD!!!!

Guys....Look what happened.... our house has sold....to US! WE OWN OUR HOUSE! Man, what a crazy ride it has been but today we celebrate as it went unconditional today. Where's the bubbles?

We have seen God's hand on every facet of this journey. From God telling Jamie that we would be in our own home at the beginning of the year, to me taking a photo of the serial number for the kitchen lino when they replaced it months ago...just in case, to me telling the kids that the tree outside the lounge window was coming down, to looking at options to be able to buy, to me not 'feeling' like we would be moving, to the bank backing us with very favourable conditions and repayments, to here....we own a house.

Something for all these years we never ever thought possible. God is so good....and he always never ceases to surprise and bless. Our journey has not been easy over the last eight years....and while we may seem to be walking through life full of faith... but you need to hear that I have moments of doubt, worry and tantrums. But it is scripture that hauls me back into place, worship that takes my eyes off myself and our situation and a strength that can only be filled by a good good God.

I'm ridiculously happy right now. I came home from a coffee meeting this morning and Jamie came out and carried me over the threshold of OUR own home....again I'm off to buy bubbles!!!

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us," Ephesians 3:20

Oh, My Goodness!!!

For those that have followed along on the Loving Arms journey will know that this is a very exciting new chapter!

I feel like crying!

Soooooo many feelings going on right now.

Today we received news that Loving Arms Charitable Trust...is live and actually a very real thing. We are all very excited around here as it has been quite the journey to get to this point and i have learnt new things and stretched my poor brain to no end.

Today marks the end of a pivotal chapter in Loving Arms and the beginning of an excited new one.

Thank you to all who have held my hand throughout, explained the big words and legal jargon to me. Thank you to my new board members, my AMAZING team of volunteers and my wonderful family who saw more than a few tears shed in the process.

I'm off to buy bubbles!

Kaiawhina

Well, my new baby is out there now....and I'm kinda petrified. I am not sure if that's the correct response one is suppose to have though. I so badly want new mums to feel valued, seen, supported, cared for and special.... I think I'm just worried about stuffing it up.

The time after welcoming a new baby into the family is so sacred and precious. We as a society so badly undervalue this time.... passing it off with comments such as..."you aren't going to lie around all day, are you?" New mums feel the immense pressure said or not said to bounce back to our normal selves.... NEWS ALERT FOLKS....you will never the same again!!

I could go on but I'll save it for another post.... I don't get time to get a big head around here ...I showed my kids the picture in the newspaper and it was not even an hour before someone nearly screwed me up and used to light the fire. I managed to rescue myself for at least another 24 hrs.

Kids will always keep you humble in my opinion...always. It was back on mum duty...baking, nappy changing, bed making and face wiping. Right back in the trenches for me.

I had some really lovely texts, messages and phone calls....so I just want to thank you ALL for you very kind support and very kind words. I really do feel so humbled.

Loving Arms Turns 5

If I wasn't excited, then I am now. Not only did we get to celebrate Loving Arms 5th birthday yesterday with a fabulous breakfast, but we launched our brand-new initiative out into the world....Kaiawhina. I will do a later post all about it but if you are at all interested you can click on the link below and have a read all about it.

Yesterday was so really special as we celebrated with our long standing and very hard-working volunteers, former mums that have received help from us, local midwives, board members and our local MP Barbara Kuriger MP and Paula Bennett. There are so many people I want to thank that helped pull this occasion off because if it was left up to me, they would have been eating weet-bix. Our amazing pancake breakfast was lovingly cooked for us by former Chef David Raine who gifted us his services. He had the pleasure of my husband Jamie as his kitchen hand. We were treated to coffee by Kelan Attwood who too donated his barista skills to this special occasion.

The room looked absolutely stunning (again not at all me) was dressed by the ever-lovely Sylvia Craig from Tussock & Co. And thank you to our other wonderful supporters that helped me pull this breakfast off.... you all are such gems!

But what I think I loved the absolute most was watching every single person in the room engaging in genuine conversation and enjoying themselves. That was touched my heart the most.

So, as we head into this new chapter of Loving Arms, I can't wait to see what the next 5 years holds for us....I hope you all will join us on this journey.

Much love

Sharni xxx

Be Brave

Some of our beautiful volunteers

Resting in God

It's been a bit of a tough day round here.... I'm trying to be super positive and all...but it's hard. This morning we found out that the offer we put in on this house was declined.... well actually a counteroffer was put forward well over our budget. I'm gutted. I truly thought and felt that we weren't going to be moving from here. Some of you if you have been following along for a while know the story of how we were homeless for a while...prayed very specifically for a rental that ticked all the boxes for our large family. How God gave us this house in the street that we had said "this is a nice street we'd love to live in this street". So now two months after the landlords put this house on the market we bravely stepped out and put our very best offer in this house, but it just wasn't enough. Did I tell you I'm gutted?

I have been trying to rest in Gods peace and His promises, trying to tell myself that if God has closed the door, then He has something better for us.... I'll get there and embrace the excitement of the journey eventually but today many tears have flowed. I know God is good but today I'm asking the question why things can't just be easy for us for once.... knowing full well that if things are easy, we're more likely to rely on ourselves than on our Heavenly Father. I simply can't imagine what God is doing but I know it is good. What I do know is that.... God has already told us that at the beginning of the year that we would be in our own home by the end of the year... (I confess I didn't believe him until the house was put on the market.... because you know... money).

If it hadn't, we wouldn't have investigated options to buy a house for our family or been pre-approved by the bank and consequently be in the position, we are in now to buy. So now as I'm flying solo for four days ...waiting for the landlords to serve us notice...all I can do is simply rest in knowing the God is good, He is faithful, and He's done miracles before...He can do it again! Tomorrow, I'll do it better tomorrow.